Forefathers would be amazed at today’s U.S.

By Rev. Laura Lee Odegard

Steven Radig, in a March 2 letter, quoted our Founding Fathers in suggesting that our government leaves us free to regulate our own pursuits and also that if we sacrifice liberty for security. we could lose both. These are words of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.

These wonderful, immortal words go back more than 200 years, to the days just after the American Revolution.

These were different times compared to the 21st century. We were no longer tied to the British; yet we did still promote slavery and the basic ownership of women by male family members. I admire that era and the struggle that freed us to be a great nation.

My own English-German forebears arrived in the 17th century. Some fought in the American Revolution, others in the Civil War or other conflicts since then. My spouse was a first-generation American; his parents were Norwegian immigrants.

My children can identify with their immigrant grandparents, as well as with a portion of our ancient kin. All felt blessed to become part of our American heritage.

However, our Founding Fathers did live in what they considered an “ideal government.” Politics were yet to be resolved, and General George Washington would become our first president.

Today, with television, the Internet and a rapidly changing world culture, we cannot buy into the mindset of the 1700s.

Could Jefferson and Franklin ever have imagined motorized vehicles, airplanes, space ships, e-mail, plus the marvels of medical breakthroughs? Even the rise of Abraham Lincoln, as well as the Civil War, and the divisions that chopped up America, and in part even exist today? What would be Jefferson's view of our current young and gifted president?

Times change, and 2050 may surprise us all! Even so ... God bless America!

Rev. Laura Lee Odegard of Waukon is a retired United Methodist minister and a freelance writer.